I am normally trying to find places in the Hebrew Bible where Joseph Smith made extensive changes. Today I am using a verse where only one change was made by adding two words.
Here is the original verse.
King James Version of Romans 6:7
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Sounds great to me. But probably not true. Why would my sinful nature change just because I was dead? Surely the temporary loss of a physical body would help, but I am not sure that is enough to avoid sin altogether.
Satan does not have a body and he is the author of sin. Not having a body is insufficient evidence to explain this verse. Certain beings sinned in the pre-Earth life and were not allowed to get a body, so that should end that line of reasoning.
By the way, the whole "third part" does not mean "one third". Third part means limited number to those of the ancient world. Satan did not pull off bringing down 33.33 percent of our Heavenly Parents' children. It is heartbreaking that even one person failed to advance to Earth, but it was not some number in the billions. Any number was too high, but it is not as high as some people believe. I understand with free will people can follow whomever they want, and GOD could have theoretically lost all his children (except JESUS) in one fell swoop. I am just going on what the phrase "third part" really means.
My best speculation is that the first part of people said "Satan is a fool, and JESUS is the being most like GOD, so let's follow CHRIST." These people got it right from the outset and never wavered.
The second part of the people may have been initially confused but came to their senses before it was too late. In essence they changed their votes. Just like all of us have to do in this life to continue to follow CHRIST. Whenever we reached accountability and finally sinned we initially voted to be estranged from GOD.
The third part wanted the easy but ineffective way, and would not change their vote.
Back to Romans. Here is the inspired revision.
Joseph Smith Translation Romans 6:7
For he that is dead to sin is freed from sin.
The addition of the words "to sin" changes the entire chapter. It is worth reading Romans any time, but especially chapter 6 with this modification in mind. I am sure the apostle Paul is grateful we can now read what he really meant to convey. Let's be dead to sin before we are actually dead.
